History of Diving

Il turismo archeologico subacqueo in Italia: opportunità e rischi
1. Una straordinaria opportunità
2. Elitismo gentrificato e slow diving
3. Una pratica virtuale ed educativa
4. Mondo blu e mondo grigio: l’alterità del turismo subacqueo
5. Una cura per un sistema cancerizzato? Il caso di Siracusa
6. La chimera del turismo sostenibile: le Cinque Terre e Capri
7. I percorsi subacquei di Ustica: turismo e archeologia
8. Autenticità e spazi marini: Ustica e Corfu
9. Turisti, archeologi o pirati? Spot e archeologia subacquea
10. Atlantide e il turismo subacqueo pseudo-archeologico
11. Ustica: il museo delle anfore tra voyeurismo e necrofilia
12. Dal mito alla realtà: i percorsi fantasma di Ustica
13. Il sontuoso mondo di Baia e la nascita del turismo
14. Il parco sommerso di Baia e il Ninfeo di Punta Epitaffio
15. La vendetta del Ciclope: un percorso difficile

The aim of this research is to create a comprehensive set of evidence for diving and divers in the Ancient Mediterranean, in order to analyse their techniques, practices and their role in ancient economy and warfare. Direct archaeological evidence of diving in antiquity is rather scarce. With the exception of some inscriptions and archaeological finds, most of the information on divers has been preserved in classical authors. These texts refer to the use of divers for the harvesting of sponges, the salvage of cargoes and military operations. Most of the studies on divers rely on these sources, and present a literary approach to the topic.
This research intends to transcend the limitations of the textual analysis and rely on other disciplines to compensate the low visibility of the divers in the archaeological record. In order to achieve this, the present work relies on past and present evidence from the archaeological and the ethnographic record. The use of middle range theory allows archaeologists to infer from present records past human behaviours. Thus, while experimental studies on ancient metallurgy and rope making can provide information on the tools of the divers, the biology of sponges can provide data on depths and other diving conditions. This evidence can then be contrasted with the extensive literature on the physiology of breath-hold diving, while the social aspects can rely on the cross-cultural comparison with ethnographic studies.
By approaching the topic in this multidisciplinary manner it is possible to present a more complete picture of diving in ancient times. Although the low visibility of this activity in the archaeological record cannot be improved, the application of a MRT approach offers a more coherent picture of this activity in ancient times, something the literary evidence alone cannot achieve.

The aim of this study is to enhance the visibility of divers in the archaeological
record of ancient Greece. Direct evidence of diving in antiquity is rather scarce, and this has contributed to hide their presence in the scholarship, failing to recognise the
important roles divers played in their communities. Although references to divers and the use of sponges have been preserved in several texts, no attempt has been made to
correlate these narratives with the archaeological record.
This research intends to transcend these limitations by applying a new theoretical
framework derived from the principles of Middle Range Theory and Behavioural
Archaeology. Their respective emphases on the importance of the ethnographic record and experimental archaeology have made it possible to reinterpret and correlate several artefacts to the work of divers in antiquity. The indirect evidence of their work, for example, in the use of sponges in arts, medicine or personal hygiene, points to an extensive use of this commodity that had to be provided by divers. This is the first step in an ongoing research aimed at providing a more accurate understanding of the important role that divers, and sponges as a commodity, played in the trade and economy of the Mediterranean in antiquity.

The actual date is known of only a few events in the diving history of the early modern period. The fact that Francesco De Marchi (1504-1576) (Fig. 1) recorded in his notes 1 the day of his two dives in Lake Nemi not far from Rome suggests that he was well aware of their significance. However, one central question remained unanswered over the centuries until today: how the diver had been supplied with fresh air. Here, based on the analysis of the original source, this technical aspect, in particular, will be questioned and evaluated. As will be shown, the sources used so far are not very reliable and the current state of research is rather insufficient. Contrary to current accounts in the literature dealing with this question of fresh air supply, a new perspective-the possibility of supplying the diver using a bellows/hose system-is presented here as a hypothesis concerning the methodological-technical instruments used by De Marchi at the time and substantiated by means of various argumental steps. First, however, the author and his publication, which will play a special role in the further course of the study, will be examined in more detail. 2

The existence of categories of divers and the anxiety for discovery of an early breathing apparatus suggests that the issue of diving was quite thoughtful in classical times and ancient divers were already acquainted with some form of diving apparatus. But the absences of data make every effort of research difficult. How the ancient divers dived, what was their behaviour during submerged, what kind of equipment was available at their times, and how these were functioned, are matters that are still remaining with no answers until the moment that new data will be emerging.
Diving in classical times is a subject that fascinated researchers and deserves the effort for a further study.

On July 15, 1535, two important dives for the history of diving took place in Lake Nemi near Rome. In Lake Nemi, there were two sunken wrecks from the Roman period. The Italian military architect Francesco De Marchi dived there to a depth of 12 meters with an open diving helmet. The designer of this helmed was a person called "Maestro Gulielmo da Lorena".  As Michael Jung's research shows, it is very likely that this person was Etienne Guillery from Lunéville near Toul in the district of Lorraine (France).

Water and underwater activity was not always a fascinating aquatic experience. There have been cases where people suffered, were tortured, and ended their lives below the sea. Beyond accidental drowning cases, the sea became a grave for murderers, mutineers, impious, and piracy victims as well.
The aim of the present paper is firstly to shed light on cases where drowning was also used as an act of violence and execution in ancient Greece, and secondly to open space for the further study and research of data which have remained obscure.

The subject of this study is a Late Classical Period copper mine discovered during the underwater survey conducted in Çamlimanı Bay in Heybeliada in 2018 within the scope of the North East Marmara Underwater Surveys. The most important feature of the mine here is that Aristotle’s book “de Mirabilibus Auscultationibus 834.58.” states that divers have extracted copper here under two fathoms of water. At the same time, it is understood from the verses of Aristotle that copper is called diver’s copper / khalkon kolymbeten / χαλκόν κολυμβητήν and was used to make statues at the Temple of Apollo in Sikyon. Thus, it is clear that there is a copper trade extending from Heybeliada to Sicyon. The fact that this copper, which was extracted from underwater, is preferred in sculpture making makes it valuable. Aristotle, who spent much of his life in the Classical Period, was also the mentor of Alexander the Great. His contemporary Lysippos of Sicyon is a famous sculptor in the palace of Alexander the Great. This study will also focus on the commercial relationship between the sculpture school in Sicyon where Lysippos grew up, and the Heybeliada underwater mine and the diver’s copper, which appears to have found its place in the niche market.

The Sponge Gathering Diver drawing which resides into an early publication of SünTAŞ (1935), the public enterprise which has been established as a joint venture with the İş Bank, Sümerbank and İstanbul Port Company. The drawing has been processed digitally and with graphic adjustments before its publication.

earlier edition:
2nd Interdisciplinary Tourism Research Conference, 24-29 April 2012, Fethiye-Türkiye.)

The Turkish Republic, like most of other destinations in Mediterranean which has a reach to the seaside, is providing astonishing recreational diving opportunities, not only by the pristine dive sites but also under the shed of an old history on human underwater interaction. This interaction is known often refers to an occupation, the diving, and a certain industry for which that occupation is known essential, the sea sponge-gathering. Into the mentioned geography, sea sponge-gathering industry is known provided its own share of the world natural sponge demand for a long time. Undertaken mostly by diving, either by utilising the developed equipments or without, sea sponge gathering as an important initiative to cope with the unfamiliar underwater environment has become a certain source of income for the households of the mentioned shorelines. As being the elderly occupational segment of commercial diving genre, like most of the contemporary off-springs, sponge-gathering diving has also constituted a certain source of knowledge accumulation on the underwater realm. Before reaching to a formalised body of knowledge by contemporary terms, not only the developed, improved recognition of the underwater life but also the imprints of the identified inherent occupational risks and the environmental threats are found indicative in that knowledge accumulation. Same problems are also fairly well known even for the contemporary diving, not only for the professional genre but even while undertaken with recreational purposes. Into this study, historical findings on the environmental impact of that export-oriented industry and the inherent risks of diving occupation will be given for the 19 th century sea sponge-gathering on Ottoman Empire and within its availability, as a certain case which is suggesting similarities between the different regions of the world where the habitants of shorelines having been in a likely relation with seas, oceans and lakes, and representing a long tradition which has been shaped on the course of human-underwater interaction.